A new global routing algorithm for over-the-cell routing in standard cell layouts

The authors present a new global routing algorithm for over-the-cell routing in standard cell layout, which determines global routes for each net both in channels and on over-the-cell regions. The goal of the algorithm is to minimize the total channel height in the final lyout. The proposed algorithm is implemented in the C language on a SPARC station 2 and tested with the benchmarks distributed from MCNC, whose cell placements were generated with TimberWolfSC4.2c. Experimental results show that the new routing algorithm reduces the channel height by about 13.1% compared to the conventional routing algorithm.<>